December 19, 2019

Today was a day full of excitement and energy!  We played holiday themed games in Gym, worked on puzzles and word problems (some of them really had grade 4s stumped!) enjoyed to the wonderful choir performances and ended the day by finishing our read aloud, The One and Only Ivan.

I would like to thank each of you for your kind words and thoughtful gestures.  I appreciate all that you do to support your child's learning and adore spending my days with the wonderful students in room 5.  I hope you all get to enjoy this holiday with the people you love the most

Merry Christmas and all the best in the coming New Year!

Mrs. Bowers 🎄🎅🎁

December 16, 2019

Thank you to everyone that came to our Celebration of Learning on Friday.  Grade 4s enjoyed sharing their inventions with students, staff and parents.

Today we were visited by the grade 3 classes.  They were able to view our projects and ask questions.  We also had the opportunity to view other projects in grade 4 to get a sense of all of the different problems and solutions that were shared.  Tomorrow, students will be completing a reflection about the process and setting goals for future projects.

Reminder:  Field trip forms are now due.  Please return forms tomorrow or let Mrs. Bowers know if your child is unable to join us at the Glenbow Museum on Wednesday.

Tomorrow is the grade 4 talent show at 2:30.  We look forward to seeing many of our classmates perform. 🎭🎩🎤🎶🎹👏

December 11, 2019

Grade 4s have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on their simple machine inventions.  Students were asked to identify, in their own words, what were the most important aspects of the project.  They said:

• There has to be at least one simple machine that works (MH)
• Building the simple machine comes first, decorating it comes last (CS)
• You have to make sure that what you're building has not already been made (NT)
• You have to make sure your invention fits on a table (MS)
• Remember that you can make adjustments and if you do, you record them in your visual journal (GPC)
• Remember that it has to work (MF)
• You have to answer 5 questions that need to be included on your poster (SD)
• You have to make sure that your writing is done (AS)
• It is now too late to start over (AC)
• You need to refer to the Success Criteria and Rubric throughout the project (Mrs. Bowers)

We look forward to presenting our inventions on Friday at our Celebration of Learning 

*Note:  The Success Criteria and Rubric have been added to the Dec. 9th blog entry

**A note from Ms. Hebenton:

Just a reminder that if you were going to purchase a recorder, the last day to order will be Dec. 20.  

At the bottom of the ‘pay page’ on your CBE/PowerSchool account there should be an optional fee that is for recorders. This fee is not with the rest of the regular fees because it is optional and not mandatory.

Hope this info helps.

December 9, 2019

Room 5 has been busy completing their paragraphs about tools they use to return to the green zone.  The paragraphs have been self-edited and received feedback from a peer before being handed in.

This afternoon we continued to work on our simple machine projects.  We looked closely at our rubric, then discussed the questions that we need to address in our written presentation.

Ask me the following:

• What are the parts of a paragraph?
• What simple machine has been included in my project?
• Does the simple machine work?
• What work will be my focus tomorrow?

December 5, 2019

Our R.T buddies joined us this afternoon for an hour of building and feedback about our inventions.  Here's what some of the grade 4s had to say:

• "It was really fun building and decorating." (CS)
• "It's sad that it was their last day today." (KK)
• "It was really fun working with our RT buddies and giving us feedback and helping us work." (GPC)
• "Our RT buddies helped us persevere through some of our problems." (MF)
• "Our RT buddies found some solutions to our problems and helped us build what they thought might be better." (LM)
• "Our RT buddies helped us through it but they didn't do the work for us." (MH)

Our buddies from RT will be joining us on Friday, December 13th to view our learning celebration.  We look forward to sharing our inventions with everyone.  

See you tonight at STEM night!  6:00-7:30pm

December 4, 2019

Highlights from today's learning include:

• students continued to build their simple machine prototypes for their design projects
• in writing students were writing a paragraph and giving feedback based on the success criteria we wrote together
• in Math we tried to place years in order based on the dates that appeared on the bottom of a  number line 
• we had a fire drill today and we were very successful at lining up quickly and quietly

Tomorrow our RT Alderman buddies will join us to help as we continue to build our inventions.

Reminder:  Book orders are due tomorrow.  Please check on the Scholastic website if you would like to place an order.

Tomorrow is our STEM night.  Hope to see you there! 

December 2, 2019

We have a new carpet!  Thank you to Parent Council for making this possible for room 5 😃

This afternoon the grade 4s narrowed down their design options and chose which design they would like to build.  We made a list of materials that we will need and visited the iLab to see what is available to build with.  Students are encouraged to collect materials from home if they were unable to locate what they need in the iLab. 

Ask me what materials I need to build my device and what simple machine I will incorporate into my final model.  We will begin building tomorrow. 

Please continue to send food bank donations this week.

Scholastic book orders for Dec. will be due Thursday, Dec. 5th.  Please look online for any books you'd like to order.